Top-seeded Saints come up one star short of return trip to Giant Center
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
Everyone in the Berks Catholic locker room knew deep inside that the moment they lost Kingston McKoy their chances of winning a third straight District 3 championship became imperiled.
None of the Saints wanted to admit it, of course. None were ready to give up. They fought to the end again Tuesday, erased most of an early 12-point deficit, and were a couple of plays away from making it back to the Giant Center for Friday’s Class 4A title game.
In the end there was just no filling the gaping hole that the loss of McKoy – a Player of the Year candidate who literally did it all for the Saints – created.
“I still believe, deep down, if we had Kingston we’re making that run in counties and districts,” senior Parker Nein said Tuesday after a 51-44 semifinal loss to Eastern York that denied the Saints the chance to defend their title on the same court where they claimed it.
Berks Catholic was 13-0 and head-and-shoulders above the competition when McKoy went down against Reading High Jan. 23. It was the only unbeaten team left in District 3. It had a higher power rating than every other team in the district, even those in Class 6A.
The trajectory of the Saints’ season changed the instant the 6-2 sophomore crashed to the floor and snapped a bone in his leg.
They were still able to win as Nein – who had a game-high 22 points Tuesday – and senior Josh McKoy each elevated their game.
The elder McKoy was particularly motivated to carry the load in honor of his brother and did for the past month.
Tuesday, when Josh McKoy met his match in Eastern’s 6-6 Carter Wamsley, he could only do so much. The two 1,000-point scorers and college prospects battled each other to the hilt. They went at it on both ends, and each took something away from the other.
Wamsley, who averaged a team-leading 15.6 points for the fifth-seeded Golden Knights (17-8), couldn’t get the shots he wanted against McKoy, a lengthy 6-4 wing forced to play center for the top-seeded Saints (21-4).
Wamsley scored just one basket after the first quarter, shot 3-for-12 from the field, and finished with 10 points.
“Josh did a great job on him,” said Saints coach Snip Esterly.
Wamsley returned serve on the defensive end. The Division I prospect manned up against McKoy and made his night a workout. McKoy didn’t score during a first quarter that saw the Saints trail 15-3 and 17-6 at the break.
He had just four points at halftime and finished with 16, just under his average, but he struggled to get the kind of position and clear paths to the lane he prefers because of the physical play of Wamsley. It took McKoy 20 shots to get his points, nearly twice as many as he normally takes.
The Knights could afford an off night by their star player; they had plenty of other guys step up.
Senior guard Carter Foote-Renwick riddled the Saints with his moves to the basket and finished with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
“They have a lot of good shooters,” Nein said, “but we didn’t think (Foote) could take it to the basket and score (like he did).”
The Knights have other capable scorers. Senior guard Simon Lipsius had 11 points and twice burned the Saints on 3-pointers off inbounds plays. Justin Strausbaugh, a defensive end playing center, scored 10 points and played a pivotal role with 16 rebounds – eight off the offensive glass.
Those kept possessions alive, none bigger than when his offensive board led directly to a 3-pointer by Lipsius with 5:20, pushing Eastern’s lead to 41-34 moments after it had been trimmed to two.
The boxscore clearly shows the story: Eastern had four guys in double figures; Nein and Josh McKoy combined for 38 and shot 15-for-39. The rest of the team shot 2-for-16.
“Besides Parker and Josh, the whole (rest) of the team gave us six points,” Esterly said, shaking his head in a deserted Berks Catholic locker room. “You can’t win in the playoffs when you can’t score.”
The Golden Knights advance to play sixth-seeded Big Spring (19-5) in the district championship Friday at 4:30 at Giant Center.
The Saints (21-4) will meet second-seeded Fleetwood (20-3) in the third-place game Thursday at 7 back at Wolf Gymnasium. Both teams punched their PIAA Tournament berths with quarterfinal wins.
The Saints cost themselves the game with another poor start. They had just one basket in the first six minutes and fell behind 15-3. They gave up some easy baskets on missed defensive assignments and by letting Strausbaugh get a couple of putbacks.
“We just didn’t know what we were doing on defense,” Nein admitted.
Esterly was constantly searching for the right match-ups to fix the problems but he was like the little Dutch boy trying put his fingers in the leaking dike; it proved futile because every time he made a defensive switch it opened another hole.
“We just had match-up problems,” he said.
The biggest leak was one Esterly would never be able to fix. It was too big.
Never once over the last month did he point to the loss of Kingston McKoy as a reason his team couldn’t contend for a title. Then again, he didn’t have to.
“They would’ve had no one who could’ve played him,” Esterly lamented, “no one.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Eastern York | 17 | 9 | 10 | 15 | 51 |
| Berks Catholic | 6 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 44 |
| Golden Knights (17-8) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Seitz | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Foote-Renwick | 6-8 | 5-7 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 18 |
| Lipsius | 4-8 | 0-0 | 3-6 | 1 | 3 | 11 |
| Wamsley | 3-12 | 4-6 | 0-2 | 0 | 5 | 10 |
| Strausbaugh | 3-8 | 4-7 | 0-0 | 1 | 16 | 10 |
| Marcus | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Zerbe | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 17-39 | 13-20 | 4-10 | 3 | 29/33 | 51 |
| Saints (21-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Dominguez | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Nein | 9-19 | 2-3 | 2-6 | 0 | 8 | 22 |
| J. McKoy | 6-20 | 2-2 | 2-7 | 0 | 7 | 16 |
| Komoro | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Altimar | 1-6 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| Suski | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Diaz | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Kozik | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Totals | 17-55 | 5-7 | 5-20 | 1 | 27/29 | 44 |
Turnovers: Eastern 15, Berks Catholic 9. Team rebounds: Eastern 4, Berks Catholic 2.
